Alexander M. Ervin (PhD Illinois) is Professor Emeritus, Anthropology, University of Saskatchewan where he taught and researched for 51 years. His specialities include environmental anthropology, socio-cultural change, and applied anthropology. He is a past president of the Society for Applied Anthropology. His books include Canadian Perspectives in Cultural Anthropology (2001), Applied Anthropology: Tools and Perspectives for Contemporary Practice (2005) and Cultural Transformations and Globalization: Theory, Development, and Social Change (2015).

Chapter 1-What is Political Ecology?; Part I: Agriculture; Chapter 2-Overview of Global Food Production: Pressures to Industrialize; Chapter 3-Field Crops: Grains and Soy; Chapter 4- Livestock Production; Chapter 5-Who Really "Feeds a Hungry World"? Part II: Energy;Chapter 6-Coal; Chapter 7-The "Devil's Excrement"-Petroleum; Chapter 8-Hydroelectric and Irrigation Dams; Chapter 9-Uranium and Nuclear Power: The Case Against; Part III: Solutions; Chapter 10-Transforming our Political Economies and Dealing with the Issue of Constant Growth; Chapter 11-Some Solutions in Agriculture; Chapter 12-Renewable Energy Solutions; Part IV: Conclusions; Chapter 13-The Big Moral Question; Chapter 14-What Might Happen Next?